Minarelli 125cc

[lcp8410]

anyone have a picture of Minarelli 125cc using on 125 pro class? are there motor run gas or convert to alcohol? hope someone sharing here...thanks..

[T Chance]

I have one. An alcohol burner. I'm going o work now. Will get some photos when I get home.

[T Chance]

Just hung the motor on the back of a boat and am posting photos here and also sending to your e-mail.

[lcp8410]

mac 125

tim, u got a Pm

[Smitty]

How were you able to come up with such an exotic piece of gear as a Minarelli? Did you cast the crankcase? Any hassles with the crank in making an outboard out of the engine? Your ground strap looks semi-serious! Have you got the engine running, tuned, propped to your satisfaction?

[David Weaver]

Mac's

Pete Hellsten and a gentleman from Finland (Cary) made the first 125cc Mac Prototype. It ran well and Mac made several factory powerheads. Pete made me a prototype 250 cc engine that we raced with some success. Mac also made a few 250's and a 350. There were still some of these finished powerheads in Italy. Mac was purchased by another company. When I last contacted them about buying all their remaing powerheads and parts, their expectations on pricing were rather high in my opinion. I felt the Mac's had a ton of potential, but need someone to continue with development work.

There are two 250's in the US, a 350 and maybe as many as a dozen 125's.

[lcp8410]

Minarelli 125cc

david,thats really some usefull information.is that possible to convert these motor to run pump gas?

[David Weaver]

Gasoline

Possible - probably, but it would require an effort only to make the engine run poorer. These were designed to run at high RPM that would not be reached on gasoline. Leave it as a methanol engine if you have one.

david,thats really some usefull information.is that possible to convert these motor to run pump gas?

[T Chance]

How were you able to come up with such an exotic piece of gear as a Minarelli? Did you cast the crankcase? Any hassles with the crank in making an outboard out of the engine? Your ground strap looks semi-serious! Have you got the engine running, tuned, propped to your satisfaction?

This one originally belonged to my long-time racing partner, Jack Kaemmer. He ran it with quite a degree of success on a 4-point Apel Hydro. This is one of the first ones from Pete. Notice the cast crankcase with "Baby Mac" the later models had a machined billet case. We have tried it on a runabout recently but didn't have the right props for an 11:17 gear ratio. So, as of now it the back-up motor to a VRP for the 125 Hydro of my daughter.

[Smitty]

Are "MAC" and Minarelli the same outfit, a merger maybe? It's not clear on their website. Anyway, were the outboards an in-house operation, or was the company selling their motorcycle and kart racing parts to someone outside who wanted to built outboard racemotors? And is it just these outboard conversion parts that are now pricy or unobtainable? The karting side of things looks to be pretty active . . . .

[Al Lang]

Smitty, I believe that MAC made engines for Minarelli.
Back in the day, when Mac Minarelli first hit the market, they won the 125 world championship. Kurt Hellsten borrowed a boat and finished 3rd and Pete finished 5th. Not bad for a new engine. Pete then worked on the 250 which Mr. Weaver mentions. Pete told me he had a 350 which was to be tested by Peanut Pinner. Peanut had injured his hand so the testing was put off for awhile. Don't know if it was tested before Pete's death.
Pete and I go back to the 50s and 60s racing from Long Island. We lost track of each other when I left racing and moved to MI and he moved to GA and then FL. We met back up at Constantine the year before he died. We did keep in phone contact until his desth.